1. Persons Responsible for This Assessment

Equality Impact Assessment Form (BM5 9/2010)

1. Persons responsible for this assessment:

Name: Ewen Saunders Telephone: 01452 426851

Service: HR E-Mail: [email protected] Directorate: Business Management Date of Assessment: 2nd June 2010

2. Name of the policy, service, strategy, procedure or function: Is this new or an existing one? New Apprenticeships Strategy for Gloucestershire County Council.

3. Briefly describe its aims and objectives Apprenticeships are a framework of nationally recognised qualifications that combine work-based training and formal education. They offer the opportunity for people to gain paid work experience whilst developing their skills and achieve qualifications through a structured training and work placement route. Apprenticeships are available to any age of people but much of the training funding is available for the priority groups of 16 – 19 year olds.

The apprenticeship framework is available for 16 + year olds. Apprenticeships operate as a partnership programme between the student, employer and educational institution to provide a framework of an NVQ 2 and/or 3 with key skills qualifications and a technical certificate that is blended with paid workplace learning at Gloucestershire County Council.

Apprenticeships allow employers to build a skilled and flexible workforce within recruitment priority areas. Apprenticeship programmes can help strengthen our workforce through:

. Developing structured career progression routes . Improving retention . Addressing our changing age profile . Instilling our values . Improving diversity by supporting the work of the Equality Framework and meet the obligations of the public sector equality duty. This addresses imbalances of underrepresented groups in the workforce. . Developing and unlocking a pool of talent . Addressing skills shortages

We are aware as an organisation that we are underrepresented in certain groups and so will be aiming to maximise promotion of this as much as possible. This will involve sharing information on this at local community events and using promotional channels already in existence with organisations such as Friendship Cafe, Polish Saturday School, Traveller Welfare Service, GCC Youth Service, WINGZ and GlosHub. This list is not exhaustive and we will look at other creative ways that this can be promoted to diverse groups across the county. 1 4. Who is intended to benefit from it and in what way? People of all ages and backgrounds from the age of 16+ and older. Apprenticeships enable the Council to target a younger age group through a more accessible blended workplace learning route.

5. What outcomes are expected? The strategy will illustrate our approach and commitment as a Council to recruiting apprenticeships. The key outcomes of delivering apprenticeships will be to build a skilled and flexible workforce within recruitment priority areas. The strategy will aid the Council’s attempts to grow a sustainable pool of trained and motivated staff. As the largest employer in the county, it is important we lead by example to further develop apprenticeships by offering younger people and adults en effective way to learn valuable skills.

6. Have you consulted on this policy, service, strategy, procedure or function? Yes

Details of consultation:  Liaison with BOF Team  Corporate Fairness & Diversity Forum (Staff groups, Members, Trade Unions, Directorate F&D representatives) through the EIA process  Equalities Team

7. What evidence has been used for this assessment: eg Research, previous consultations, MAIDEN?

 Historical background – previous engagement of apprentices within the Council and the context of their success over previous years.  Research – benchmarking exercise with various County, Borough and District Councils who run apprenticeship programmes to explore their approaches in the current climate.  Research on the drive and popularity of apprenticeships as a work based learning route through various sources (e.g. National Apprenticeship Service, Local Government Employers, Government Equalities Office, XpertHR website, CIPD website)

8. Could a particular group be affected differently in either a negative or positive way?

Please evidence that you have used the Consultation toolkit and planning template http://staffnet/index.cfm?articleid=5203

2 Negative Positive Neutral Evidence

Apprenticeships are open to people of all ages Age over 16 years old but are specifically targeted for  16 – 19 year olds where the funding streams for the training are more generous. Promote to GIS. Open to all. Disability 

No negative effects – open to all. Gender 

Race including No negative effects – open to all.  Gypsy & Traveller Promote to Traveller Welfare Service. No negative effects – open to all. Religion or Belief 

No negative effects – open to all. Sexual Orientation 

No negative effects – open to all. Transgender 

No negative effects – open to all.

Promotion of the scheme to re-engage Other groups: eg NEETS and long-term unemployed will be a Rural Isolation, potential outcome for the strategy. Long term  unemployed, Apprenticeships aim to bring together diverse Deprivation groups of people from all ages and Health Inequality backgrounds. For example, the Council has recently recruited to 3 Looked After Children care leavers from within our service to become apprentices within CACD. Community Describe how the proposed Apprenticeships form a key area of our Cohesion activity, policy, strategy, corporate social responsibility as a Council to service, procedure or function will contribute to Community provide opportunities for our constituents. Cohesion. This is another mechanism in providing such You will need to consider; opportunities. Is there equality between those who will and won’t benefit from It will further enhance the Council’s span of Community the proposal? contact and engagement with the counties Are there strong relationships Cohesion (Contd) between groups and constituents, particularly with the younger communities in the area age groups. By working with organisations affected and will the proposed such Connexions and Schools, the Council action promote positive can foster positive relationships with younger relationships? people but will also promote the scheme via Does the proposal bring groups / communities into the National Apprenticeships Service and the increased contact with each GCC website so that people of all ages and other backgrounds can apply and undertake apprenticeships.

3 9. If you have identified a negative impact in question 8, what actions have you undertaken or do you plan to undertake to lessen or negate this impact?

Please indicate whether these actions will be carried forward into level 2 or level 3 business plans.

Action(s): How will this action be When will policy / Carried to Carried to Monitored/Evaluated service / strategy / Level 2? Level 3? procedure / function be reviewed? Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N

Declaration We are satisfied that an Impact Assessment has been carried out on this strategy* (delete those which do not apply) and where a negative impact has been identified, actions have been developed to lessen or negate this impact.

We understand that the Equality Impact Assessment is required by the County Council and that we take responsibility for the completion and quality of this assessment

Completed by: Ewen Saunders Date: 2nd June 2010

Role: HR Advisor

Countersigned by Head of Service Date:

Date for Review:

Please forward an electronic copy to the Equalities Team by emailing

[email protected]

The original signed hard copy and electronic copy should be kept with your team for audit purposes.